sell this house, part ix

our buyer got her financing. the status report didn't come in until today, so she has 2 business days to look it over and decide whether she wants it. that means by monday, we will know if our house is sold. kris was going to bring scout home today, but there's too much stuff to bring home, namely the litterbox, so we'll bring her home tomorrow when i can go with kris. i don't know if this decision is too precocious since the deal hasn't been finalized yet. i guess we'll find out on monday.

we've had only one viewing this week (the other agents can see that an offer has been made so most won't bother to book a viewing), so we've been a little lax with the cleaning. yes, we still hide our towels in the dryer and there are still flowers everywhere, but we definitely haven't been vaccuuming everyday. i am looking forward to sleeping in on saturday and spending the day with my kitty.

sell this house, part viii

we had our open house today. our agent didn't bake cookies as promised, probably because our place is mostly sold anyway. we still got 15 people, which is a lot. i remember watching one of those house-selling shows on hgtv, and the people were happy with 7 people coming to their open house.

one thing about those house-selling shows on hgtv. they're very misleading. they show the terrible houses with the cat poo stuck on the walls and horrible paint and decor - they throw a fresh coat of paint on the walls, get a slipcover for the couch, rearrange the existing ugly furniture, and voila, it's sold in a day. it so doesn't work that way!!!! i think that's another reason we were expecting to sell sooner.

small snag with the offer on the table - the buyer faxed back the agreement but didn't inital any of our changes. that obviously was a problem because she didn't initial the new price, which technically isn't legally binding. it turns out it was a mistake and not her trying to be sneaky and hoping for an even lower price. it has been faxed to our agent's office and i think it's all good.

even though we went lower in price, the $1500 less is worth it if it means i can have my kitty cat back home! and then i can post my next installment of people who look like people...

sell this house, part vii

so, this offer that we got. it was $15k lower than our asking price, so we sent it back only knocking $3k off our original price. she sent it back only increasing her original offer $3k. it seemed we were at an impasse because we didn't want to go much lower and she didn't seem to want to budge either. we sent a final offer, going a LITTLE bit lower, and she accepted!!!!

it's a conditional offer, though. so pending on her getting approval from the bank and pending on the status report that i've already requested from our property management company...if both of those things work out well, then it's a go!

we are still going ahead with the open house tomorrow, just in case. we probably won't have very good turnout since the other agents will be able to see that there is a conditional offer listed. but we shall see.

it seems that my scouty-pie will be able to come home soon! let's hope that she doesn't hold a grudge...we noticed that she's playing rougher than she ever did at our house as she has ripped apart one of her toys she has played nicely with for months. perhaps it's another example of her coping with the stress of being away from home.

so hopefully we should know by wednesday whether this will go through. i'll keep you posted...

sell this house, part vi

WE GOT AN OFFER TODAY! i think i had to hit rock bottom (yesterday) before it happened. the offer is a bit on the low side compared to our asking price, but i don't want to say too much in case these people know my blog address and are stalking me. that, and i don't want to jinx anything. but i'm happy that we finally have an offer, and our agent said we continue to get positive feedback. so we will sent a counter-offer and will see what happens. the offer came from someone who saw our place 7 days ago, so that's also somehow encouraging...perhaps they looked around and saw that ours was the best product for price. hopefully there will be others if this doesn't pan out. that almost sounded optimistic, didn't it??

we're having an open house on sunday, and our agent put an ad in the toronto star...front page of the classifieds, full colour! it will in the saturday paper, so look for it!

AND we picked our colours for the townhouse today! this was so much fun! it took us 2 hours though. something tells me that this is a little excessive to decide on flooring and cupboards. i'm excited about our choices and can't wait to have my dark floor/light cupboards kitchen! we also upgraded to the undermount sink which makes me very very happy! who knew an undermount sink could have such a positive effect on a person?

things are looking up! hence my inordinate use of exclamation marks!!!

sell this house, part v

no offers. the main complaint (really the only complaint) is that people want to live higher up in the building. i don't think they realize the benefits of our lower floor. higher ceilings. parking spot just over THERE. locker and parking on the same floor. hmph.

i also think our agent hates us. we keep emailing her and asking questions. she said that the average property takes 30 days to sell and that we are only on day 14. read: stop bugging me.

no showings today. our flowers are dying. my cat, although is doing better, doesn't seem herself. i'm convinced she hates us too for abandoning her.

if i were stuck in a desert, this would be one of those days that i don't even see any mirages of waterfalls or have any wistful thoughts of a nestea iced tea rep rescuing me, and i just lie under a cactus and hope one of the cactus needles puts me out of my misery.

just kidding. i think my morbidity comes from the frequency in which i've been watching dexter. we've finished season one, by the way, and we're eagerly waiting for my co-worker to provide us with season two. my favourite line: "maybe if i don't blink, my eyes will tear up" when he was watching terms of endearment with rita. priceless!

at least i have dexter to make me happy. oh right, and a loving husband and good health. must stay positive. where's that nestea guy??

sell this house, part iv

we had an open houae today. nothing yet. still furiously cleaning our house and replacing the flowers. people who view our unit keep wearing their shoes, despite the "please remove your shoes" sign, so we have mopped a few times this week too.

we went to visit scout today. she has little bald spots all over her ears - is this normal??? perhaps it's stress-related, but this worries me a little. kris' mom said she was scratching her ears vigorously when she first got there (perhaps a coping strategy?) and that the fur was patchy the first day. this is the first day we've noticed it though. otherwise she seems to be fine. we took a nap together today while we waited for the open house to finish.

we will have another open house, with more advertising, next weekend.

dexter-ity check

my brother lent us season one of dexter. in between the constantly cycle of cleaning, we are squeezing in a couple episodes a night. revolving around a blood spatter forensic expert by day and twisted serial killer by night, we are enjoying the series so far. its gruesome nature is purposely overdone and sort of glorifies violence and killing, but i think of that part as being artistic satire and i feel a bit better about it.

i won't say much more than this for those who haven't seen it yet, especially since it's coming to CTV. (as an aside, i am interested to see how they will edit it so it's acceptable for prime time television). but yes, over email, i told one of my co-workers how i was watching the first season, and in his reply, he launched into a long description of one of the shows he caught in the middle of season two. i quickly averted my eyes from the screen, but didn't appreciate his attempt to ruin the show for me. so i shall avoid doing the same to you, loyal reader.

i WILL say this: i called my brothers "brother" first. sure, it's not very original, since i wasn't calling my brothers "airplane commander" or something equally random, but i felt a little ripped off when i heard deb call her dexter "Brother". i'm sure they just did that to show us that deb and dexter are siblings. OR maybe the writers are stalking me and imitating my life through art - just like the ice truck killer! *insert eerie music (perhaps diminished chords!) here*

i'm such a geek.

sell this house, part iii

so on monday, we thought we would get a break from the viewings. as we were getting ready for the day, we thought we should at least tidy a little in case we are gone and we get a call for a last-minute showing. then the phone rang, there were suddenly four appointments booked for that day. while that's good, still no offers. harumph.

since then, the viewings have dwindled down to one, if any, a day. our agent still says that the feedback is very positive and that we should not worry. so i'm not worrying. that much.

so far, we have replaced the fresh cut flower bouquets three times. the worst is having not-so-fresh cut flowers so, surprise, we've been a little obsessive about making sure our fresh-cut flowers stay that way.

we were hoping to sell our house before the long weekend so we can make some rounds to visit family/friends, but i'm not sure if that's going to happen anymore. even more reason to hope that someone will come to their senses and make an offer!

sell this house - part ii

i guess there isn't much of an update. we have had about four viewings a day, which is good...there's a lot of interest, but no offers yet. we're told that it will take some time, and one of my student's parents said that if you get an offer right away, it just means that you priced it too low. i'm not sure if she's saying that to make us feel better, but i'll take it.

our routine: wake up early. hide pyjamas under the sheets. shower and use towels that we hid the day before in the dryer. wipe down bathtub. get ready for the day then put everything away...this includes the hair dryer, flat iron, moisturizer, make-up and brushes, put towels back in the dryer. dust, vacuum, windex, iron the wrinkles out of the sheets (i just iron the sheets right on the bed, i don't actually take off the sheets to iron. that's just ridiculous) and lint-brush the bed. put the "bad" hand towels that we were using in the dryer, turn it on for 20 minutes and throw out the garbage. go to work. hope for someone to make an offer. come home, take out bad hand towels, take out separate bag to put garbage in. eat something that doesn't require making a lot of mess, usually soup or something else out of a can. wash the dishes carefully so as not to splatter any water. wipe down the counters, windex the sink and glasstop stove. crawl into bed and fall asleep immediately, only to repeat the next day. sigh.

scout is staying at kris' mom's house. the first day she was sad, also because there was a thunderstorm, but she's adjusted pretty well. she still recognizes us when we visit, which is comforting.

we don't have any showings booked for tomorrow...while obviously we would like to have showings every day, maybe this means we can sleep in? and maybe even do some laundry? here's to hoping!

mls, here we come!

W1300841. that's our mls number. it's not up on the actual mls website yet, but here the pictures:










we had one showing already; these people saw a couple units in our building and liked ours the best! happiness! the only problem is that they don't have a car so they don't know if this area is the best for them...especially since the ttc seems to think that this neighbourhood only exists during rush hour. a good sign though...are your fingers still crossed for me?

oh, and the music on the piano? beethoven, just case you were wondering.

*edited to add: can YOU pick out all the ikea accessories in the pictures? i think i counted 14...

for sale: two bedroom condo and my sanity

our condo will be listed with the toronto real estate board tomorrow.

the photographer was supposed to come on friday to take pictures, but because of the weather, he came this morning instead. this just meant it gave us more time to obsess about cleaning and de-cluttering, which we have already done plenty of. our cupboards look a lot like the cupboards in sleeping with the enemy - if you haven't seen the movie, picture that all the soup cans lined up perfectly with the labels facing out. okay, maybe it's not that bad, but pretty close. i actually ironed the duvet cover and the sheets (well, just the part that folds over the duvet). this is more difficult and cumbersome than one might think.

we bought new plants so hopefully we won't kill them before the house sells. i'm not holding my breath, though. we bought a lamp for the top of the piano, new candles for our candle holder thingie and the agent's assistant brought many flowers to strategically place throughout our suite.

i will keep you posted as we try our hand at this finicky game of real estate. wish us luck.

my new best friend

i've been wanting a new cell phone. the phone i have is fine, but my digital organizer thingie has been slowly dying...the battery lasts for only a day, and in a world of slimmer and trimmer gadgets, it was really getting too bulky. i was looking to consolidate my phone with my organizer for a win-win solution!

the last time i had signed a 3 year contract with telus, after 2 years, they offered me a $400 phone credit to sign another 3-year contract. so i took them up on their offer. now, i've just completed my 2nd year of said 3-year contract, so i figured they would do the same for me this time around. i called once, and the lady said no. i only had to call once more to get what i wanted! happinesss!

so i got a blackberry pearl, and i have named her ruby. she's silver and compact and beautiful! i feel just a little bit closer to my brother who had a hand in her creation, i'm sure. she's wonderful and allows me to send messages via facebook too! the camera is better than i thought it would be and even though it's not a windows-based system, it's very user-friendly. i was also unsure about using just the pearl trackball to navigate through the controls since i was used to a touch screen and a stylus to input tasks and appointments. it's been fine though - i haven't subconsciously reached for the stylus once! i haven't synced it with my work computer yet, but my first impressions are very good.

tips and tricks to getting a new phone:

>i find if you call during the day on a weekday, you get the full-timers who know what they're doing and want to help, versus the part-timers who are stuck working weekends and are bitter about it. the first time i called (and was rejected) was on a weekend; the second time (when they gave me what i wanted) was a wednesday just after lunch.
>i told them that i wanted to upgrade to a smartphone (which means that i need to upgrade my plan, which means more $$$ for them).
>if at first you don't succeed, try, try again. i think kris called about 10 times to get a new phone and eventually got it. i'm lucky in that it only took me a couple of tries. the bottom line is, persistance is key!